The 9 Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000 in 2020

Gamers require something more from their machines, and that can be tough to find when you need a portable solution at a certain price point. The best gaming laptops under $1000 tend to open things up although there are features you may have to do without. Before we get to the top options under a grand, we’re going to talk about what you should expect from laptops in this class.

Things to Consider When Choosing Gaming Laptop Under $100

Are you a Casual or Hardcore gamer?

When you sit down for a gaming session, do you opt for E.V.E. Online or head over to Miniclip? How you game is the first step to finding the right laptop for the job. While every laptop on our list meets a specific set of requirements, you certainly won’t need 16GB of RAM if you play browser-based titles or PC classics.

No matter what types of games you play, there will be a few drawbacks in this range. While there aren’t as many cuts as you’ll find with laptops under $500, it’s rare to find a machine with a QHD panel or even a fingerprint scanner.

Laptop Power

Gaming laptops used to be notorious for their underwhelming power. While you can find the best Intel chip in today’s portable PC’s, things aren’t as rosy in the memory department. That’s where the types of games you play should be taken into account along with the system requirements of your machine.

If you’re new to the scene, you’ll notice there is a huge difference at times between the minimum and maximum requirements listed on the back of the box or online. Those numbers make things pretty clear-cut, but other factors can dramatically increase or decrease performance as well. We’re not going down that rabbit hole today but will focus on two components instead with memory and the processor.

No laptop should fall into the “gaming” category unless it has at least 8GB of RAM. That’s our baseline and will cover a wide variety of casual titles. Obviously, some games require more power so look for laptops with 16GB or ones that allow you to expand if you play hardcore titles.

As for the processors, things are fairly simple as most gaming laptops under $1000 use Intel chips. While the generation matters, so does the cache and amount of cores. 8th generation processors are the newest, and the i7 lineup is their best, but you can compare processors for yourself with this handy tool from Intel.

Pixels

Laptops in the gaming class generally top out around 17-inches although most have 15.6-inch displays. There’s a good reason for that, as bigger isn’t always better for gamers with laptops – especially if you’re on a budget. Unfortunately, the best gaming laptops under $1000 limit your choice of resolution as well. You won’t find any UHD panels in this class, so you’ll need to settle for FHD, otherwise known as 1,920 x 1,080.

NVIDIA treats their graphics cards like Intel does their chips when it comes to generations. When you’re trying to compare a GTX 980 to a GTX 1060, it can be tough if you’re new to the game. Thankfully, NVIDIA has plenty of tools that allow you to compare chips and there are resources online which benchmark the popular GTX 1050 Ti and every other processor under the sun.

Battery Life & Storage

Storage capacity for laptops in this class ranges from 256GB to 2TB. You’ll also get to choose between solid-state drives and HDD’s although the former is considerably faster than the latter. Hybrid options are a possibility, and you can always upgrade through external means if things get tight.

One thing you can’t upgrade is the battery. A laptop with quick charging capabilities is nice, but not when the battery goes flat in 4-hours. Battery life is one thing that’s sacrificed in the world of gaming laptops although there are a few exceptions to the rule. If you plan to game on the go where you’re away from a wall socket, have battery life at the very top of your list.

The Extras

While every machine we chose for our list will have a USB 3.1 port, some will have several. USB Type-C ports are a possibility in this range as well, but you may be hard pressed to find one that’s Thunderbolt compatible. There are always trade-offs, and they tend to fall into the “Extra” category with budget-friendly laptops.

Gamers may not have much use for a fingerprint scanner, but ports are essential and so are webcams. It’s an overlooked area, and one to keep in mind if you plan to stream your gaming sessions and don’t have a dedicated Vlogging camera for gaming. The same goes for audio. Most gaming laptops will offer up something special in that regard although you can’t always believe the hype.

4. ASUS ROG G531GT

With a total of 6 cores, each working on 2.6GHz, with the option to use Max Turbo Frequency to upgrade it to 4.5GHz, as well as 12MB Smart Cache and 12-way processing, it allows you to completely enjoy your favorite games, without losing the performance.

This gaming laptop features 15.6” FHD display, with energy-efficient LED Backlight, which along with the excellent NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with 4GB GDDR5 graphic memory, allows you to fully experience all those beautiful games.

To even further enhance that, there is a total of 16GB DDR4 SDRAM, working on 2666 MHz, to give you even smoother gameplay.

As for the available storage, there are 1TB HDD and 512GB SSD storage, which are capable of giving you much faster loading times and make sure you always have free space.

As a nice addition, there is already installed Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge browser.

Cons:

5. HP Pavilion 15-dk0042nr

As another great addition to the HP Pavilion series, 15-dk0042nr comes with the advanced thermal management option, which keeps your device cool all the time, without increasing the noise.

Accompanying that, there is a really fast Intel Core i5-9300h CPU, which has 4 cores, each working on 2.4GHz, with the possibility to overclock it up to 4.1GHz by using Intel’s Turbo Boost.

When it comes to additional gaming performance, this model features Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, which has 4GB GDDR5 graphic memory, allowing you to enjoy graphically-realistic games, without too much FPS drop.

That experience is even improved with 15.6” Full HD IPS Anti-Glare WLED Backlit Display with Micro-Edge design and 144Hz refresh rate.

To boost the power even further, there is total of 12GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM, with the possibility to upgrade with 2 additional slots.

There are also 512GB of Intel® Solid State Drive internal storage, as well as an additional 32GB Intel® Optane™ memory.

Apart from that, this model comes with built-in bios recovery and protection, which will keep your laptop protected at all times.

Pros:

Advanced Thermal Design and IR Sensors

Very good CPU

Excellent GPU

Perfect Display

Built-in Bios protection

Cons:

6. Acer Predator Helios 300

Acer made waves when they first introduced their Predator lineup, and it’s still going strong today. The Helios 300 is an affordable version of their gaming laptop and one that’s built for VR straight out of the box.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is in line with the best gaming laptops where it counts. It has a Core i7-9750H processor along with 16GB of RAM and is deemed “VR Ready” to boot. That’s due to the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti which comes with 6GB of RAM. While the 256 SSD is a bit of a letdown, it does have an extra slot when you need to expand.

Other highlights of this PC include a 15.6-inch FHD panel, a backlit keyboard, and an excellent cooling system that will keep you gaming long into the night. The battery life is also solid on this one despite its specifications.

Cons:

7. Lenovo IdeaPad L340

L340 IdeaPad model from Lenovo features 9th generation Intel Core i7-9750h CPU, which allows very fast performance, even with the most demanding games and software.

To even further enhance that, there are 8GB of DDR4 system memory, allowing you to run multiple processes at the same time, without losing the level of performance.

All that is followed by 1TB HDD and an additional 256GB NVMe SSD storage, allowing you to install a lot of games and ensures fast start-ups and loading screens.

To help with graphical performance, L340 is equipped with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, which allows you to experience smooth and fast gameplay.

And to further enhance the overall experience, there is a 15.6” FHD IPS Display that supports 1920 x 1080p resolution and comes with anti-glare technology, 250 nits, and 45% color gamut, allowing you to experience excellent color scheme.

Apart from that L340 features a 720p HD webcam with the ability to use privacy shutter, so you will be able to play with your friends or stream your gameplay.

Battery life is pretty decent since it lasts for around 9 hours with continuous work, which is enough for even the most hardcore gamers.

Pros:

Top-quality processor

Excellent amount of storage

Pretty decent display

Very good graphics card

HD webcam

Cons:

8. MSI GF63 Thin 9SCX-615

This gaming laptop from MSI features 15.6” Full HD IPS monitor, which works on 60Hz and 45% of NTSC, meaning that you will see pretty decent color scheme, which, along with very thin bezel, will make your gaming experience much more enjoyable.

To allow you to completely experience your games, MSI GF63 is equipped with an excellent Intel Core i5-9300H processor which has working range of 2.4-4.1 GHz.

Accompanying that, there is very good NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, which will let you play even more demanding games.As for the system memory, this gaming laptop features 8GB of DDR4 RAM which works on 2666 MHz. There are 2 additional sockets, with total upgradability up to 64GB of system memory.

Apart from that, there is an excellent amount of storage space, featuring total of 512GB NVMe SSD space, which, in combination with very good CPU, gives you really short loading screens and faster game performance.

Pros:

Very well-designed display

Excellent processor

Very good graphics card

Pretty decent amount of system memory

Excellent amount of storage

Cons:

9. HP Omen 15 15-dc1020nr

Also known as the 2019 HP Omen model, this gaming laptop features compact and light design. The chassis is still pretty aggressive in looks (with the red face and X mark), but you’ll notice a smaller bezel around the screen and an aluminum keyboard deck combined with a plastic bottom panel to make the laptop lighter and more portable.

The 1080p 15.6” FHD IPS Anti-Glare micro-edge WLED-backlit screen uses a 60Hz panel, which isn’t amazing but good enough. The display is supported by a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR5), which offers decent performance and does a pretty good job with modern games.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 9th Generation Intel i7-9750H Processor with 6-Core that goes from 2.6GHz up to 4.5GHz for top gaming performance. Also, the laptop is equipped with 8 GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM (upgradeable) and 256 GB M.2 SSD.The 2-zone backlit keyboard is nice to use, with illuminated WASD keys so it’s easier to find them. Finally, the battery is supposed to hold for up to 10 hours (according to HP), but if you run demanding games, it will drop to about 5 hours.

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